Your supposition on toes is backwards. Too FEW toes can come from wrong incubation temps; I speculate that too many can also, but have noting to confirm that. The too few toes is discussed in Hutt, along with polydactyly expression varying dramatically. Hutt on Polydactyly the incubation is discussed at the bottom of the linked page; the entire Po discussion begins a couple of pages earlier.Help buff silkie breeders. I recently hatched some eggs in a new incubator, reptipro 6000. Had a good experience with it. I started with Ameraucana eggs and out of 18 eggs, 17 started to develop so I moved them into a different bator and set silkies. I got 2 dozen eggs from a well known silkie breeder I won't name. They had a rough ride during shipping and 1 egg was broken. More than half were clear and never developed for one reason or another, likely shipping...?....
So anyway I have 6 fluff little chicks, 2 partridge eggs, 3 buff eggs, 1 black egg hatched over the last 2.5 days.
2 questions:
1. 2 of the buff chicks are so light and clear I am thinking they will be pretty clean with no smut, 1 of them however has very light colored pinkish feet and only 4 toes on each foot..... I know extra toes can be caused by bator temps but can less toes and light skin also or is that always hereditary?
I had 1 partridge hatch thats super fluffy, probly the fluffiest 1 day old I have ever seen and its vaulted to, but it has 4 toes as well........
2. The 3rd buff chick hatched out a color I have never seen before. Egg was marked buff.
Chick is a grayish/black on its back and sides with a little light buff color on its feet, face, butt and belly....Think of a siamese cat with points?
Could this change with first moult into a buff or is it a very smutty loss....?
I am really not having any luck with buffs..... : ( cannot seem to get anything even decent to start with! I have lost a bunch of eggs due to 1 very warm day and an A/C that quit on me, been screwed by 2 well known/famous breeders that were supposed to send me buff chicks but sent me other colors instead..... Now this......
Do I contact the breeder? I understand the losses but this person is supposed to have famous bloodlines and be one of the best.....
I paid a lot of $$$ for these eggs and I understand the shipping and 4 DIS (dead in shell) but to have the rest all have severe flaws like this?
Could it just be my bad luck???? or something I did???? Or is this flaws from some bad breeder birds???? I find it fishy I got 2 different colors with bad toes......
Thanks for the advice : ) Its much appreciated!!!!
Buff is a complicated phenotype that can be derived from several different genotypes. It can be based upon either the wheaten or brown/partridge e-allele. Wheaten-based buffs tend to have lighter skin, plumage and eyes, but to be clearer of black pigment in the plumage. Brown-based buffs tend to have richer plumage colouring, but with "smut," and darker skin and eyes. Brown-based ones tend to have properly coloured combs, while wheaten-based ones have combs that are too raspberry in colour. Chick down indicated some of the genes present in the bird, and if you are really good at recognizing the difference, they can tell you a lot about the bird's genetics. I am at best so-so at IDing the genes present, and the siamese-point markings don;t ring any bells. A photo might help. Quite frankly, I would actually post a separate thread with the photo asking for help identifying the genes present based upon the chick down. And I would not say it is a silkie--that may lose some of the genetic heavy-weights.
Honestly, your best way to get good buffs is to purchase an adult breeding pair or trio where you can see the actual birds and evaluate their quality. You may pay more initially, but at the rate you sound like you are going, you probably have already spent at least the same amount of $$$ with little to show for it.
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